Gorilla Woman
by scribbles of madness
Summary: Chitoge liked to fight about a lot of things, but it's about time she fought FOR something. Prompt: "I'm really passionate about this cause and I will give you this flyer if I have to shove it down your throat." [One-shot]


Trying out a new fandom. I don't even understand why there are multiple ships. Chitoge, whether she is or she isn't the promise girl, is _obviously_ the one for Raku.

 **Prompt** : "I'm really passionate about this cause and I will give you this flyer if I have to shove it down your throat."

* * *

 _It's not worth it._

Ichijou Raku bit his bottom lip, and tightened his grip on the strap of his schoolbag. He closed his eyes, lowered his head, drew in one long breath. It came out shaky.

 _One. Two. Three._

His breathing finally evened out, and he could feel himself taking control of his expressions. If he knew he was about to encounter the greatest spectacle he will ever witness that day, he would've brought a camera. Too bad Chitoge and all their other friends used up all his phone storage for their selfies and group photos. He slowly opened his eyes, reminded himself again _it's not worth it_ , and braced himself for any more unwanted reactions.

He could not, however, stop the smirk tugging at the side of his mouth. He firmly pressed his lips together in a straight line and marched towards his girlfriend, who was currently handing out colorful flyers to passing students in the schoolyard. Chitoge was wearing a yellow shirt over her standard school uniform. Raku kept his eyes away from the large print of a gorilla head in the middle of the shirt, lest he actually loses control of the spasms of laughter building up within him this time.

"The mountain gorilla is one of the most endangered species in the world!" Chitoge cried out to two seniors, who politely smiled and slipped the flyers in their binders. "WWF classified them as _critically endangered_!"

When Raku walked up to her, she stood up straighter, and stared him down. The glint in her eye challenged him to tease her for what he accused her of being all this time. _Bring it, you pathetic vegetable._

"Now—"

"Don't you _dare_ —"

"—when I call you 'gorilla woman'—"

"I'm warning you, Raku, shut your mouth, I swear to—"

"—I didn't mean for you to take it literally."

Inwardly, Raku was congratulating himself for managing to talk so soberly. He knew she'd never let him go unscathed if he laughed in her face and mocked her for being the mouthpiece of the creatures whose strength was only a few degrees more remarkable than hers. Still, he couldn't pass up an opportunity to taunt her even for just a little bit.

Smoke might as well have been puffing out of Chitoge's ears. She felt heat rising to her face and she knew her cheeks would shine bright red with shame and anger in just a few moments.

"I don't have to explain anything to you," she spat. "But if you must know, I finished my homework early sometime this week and a particularly engrossing show on Animal Planet was on." She averted her eyes to break their steady gaze. "It was about the mountain gorillas in the Congo Basin. Mountain gorillas have always lived in higher altitudes, away from sites of human activity, but their homes have been destroyed for agriculture and raising livestock, greatly compromising their survival!"

Raku raised his eyebrows as Chitoge moved on to rant about the exploitation of the resources in the Virunga Mountains. With her tightly clenched fists and distraught demeanor, she actually looked kind of cute. Not that he'd admit that openly, of course.

"Why do you care so much though?" Raku asked in the middle of her tirade on the illegal charcoal-making business taking place inside the national park.

Chitoge opened and closed her mouth like a goldfish, completely gobsmacked at such an insensitive, ignorant question. "What's wrong with you? You don't care about Mother Earth?"

"Calm down, geez. I mean what got you making flyers and screaming in the schoolyard like a soapbox orator? Your cause is admirable, but I didn't really peg you for an eco-warrior."

"I don't know. The show really spoke to me, I guess," Chitoge admitted. "I can get really petty about a lot of things. You know that."

She shot a wicked grin at Raku, and he snorted, all too familiar with her hissy fits and volatile mood changes and the endless list of things that set her off.

"I think I just want to direct all that energy towards something that matters for once. If you can piss me off a hundred times a day—"

"Hey!"

"—then why can't a bunch of stupid, greedy poachers provoke me just as much? There's less than a thousand mountain gorillas left in the world, even with the success of conservation efforts. They should have someone fight for them."

"Other animals too, of course!" she added right away. "But I'm taking it slow. I can't binge-watch Animal Planet documentaries. I really want to say I can, but they make me feel so sad."

Raku ran a hand through his spiky black hair, pensive. What a curious thing this girl is.

Chitoge brightened up. "Oh! That reminds me!"

She reached into her backpack and yanked out a shirt as yellow as the one she's wearing.

 _Aw, hell no._

"Let me stop you right there." Raku took a step back and threw a dirty look at Chitoge. "This is your fight, gorilla woman, not mine."

"You're supposed to be my boyfriend, dumbass," she hissed, shoving the shirt into Raku's chest. "You're supposed to support me and care about the things I care about. We're supposed to grow as a couple, you know? I get you involved and invested in things that make you better as a person, and you do the same for me. In this case, I'm trying to get you to give a shit about not only mountain gorillas, but also nature itself."

"Wow, growing as a couple, that is, wow, that's something."

Chitoge ignored the creeping sensation down her neck as she realized the implications of her attempts to convince him into rallying her cause with her. She has no idea why she had to go there. She quietly reveled in the fact that it wasn't a totally negative response. "Wow, that's something"? Couldn't possibly mean "Wow, you're batshit crazy", could it?

Raku's glance fell to the flyers she held in her other hand. A cartoon family of three gorillas, all smiling. Snow-capped purple mountains in the background. Lots of greenery. Generic slogans like "Protect the mountain gorillas!" He lifted his eyes to hers, and resigned his fate to the gorilla gods or whoever's in charge of karmic distribution.

"All right, all right, fine," he sighed, and took the shirt. "You'll beat me up with your gorilla strength if I don't agree anyway."

"That's right!" Chitoge grinned. "Tell you what. When you get this burning passion to fight for something, just tell me. I'll be on your side all the way."

Raku merely grunted in response. He was all for advocacy, but he was a pacifist at heart, and the idea of all-out protesting never really appealed to him. Besides, he didn't want to talk about 'burning passion' any more with her, and he swallowed nervously. Those thoughts aside, he deeply appreciated her holding up her end of the promise to make each other better people. To grow together.

He swallowed again.

"Listen, you should wrap this up. The first bell's gonna ring soon," he reminded her.

"Okay, you go on ahead. I'll just take my shirt off."

" _What?_ "

"Not _here_. I'll take the yellow shirt off in the bathroom." Chitoge rolled her eyes. "Do you take me for a nudist?"

"Give me those." Raku reached for the flyers. "I'll give them back to you in the classroom."

When Chitoge entered the classroom, now in her normal school uniform, and got the flyers back from Raku, she noticed the pile was thinner than it was when she handed them over to him in the yard. Looking around, she saw most of her classmates had flyers in their hands, on their desks, peeking out of their schoolbags.

"Thank you," she said in a low voice, loud enough for him to hear but quiet enough for him to mistake for a gust of wind or for a fleeting part of a conversation between other classmates.

"I might be the next endangered species if I don't help out as much as I can."

After Chitoge rolled her eyes at him for the second time that morning, Raku allowed himself a small smile. Growing together. That's really something.

* * *

Still deciding whether this should be a one-shot or a series of drabbles. I have an awful track record with drabbles though. Working on it. Anyway, save the mountain gorillas! Down with illegal industries damaging natural habitats! Support conservation efforts! Promote awareness!


End file.
